St. John’s Abbey hosted its first-ever English as a Second Language Institute for monks from around the world this summer.

Benedictine Brother Paul Richards, director of the St. John’s Abbey Benedictine Volunteer Corps who became the ESL program’s director, described how the idea became reality.

“We have many monk-students from other countries that come to study at St. John’s School of Theology,” he said. “Over the years they have expressed a need for better preparation in English for study here and [to offer] better service at their home monasteries.”